Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1887-06-24
A TEMPEST In A TEAPOT.
MERRITT, NOT MERIT.
i Ne,c Da"iet HAS Come to Jadgemem

gon Sentinel of June 11th, 1887.
When we came home it was shown us,
and we feel it our duty to say word
in reply to this paragon of erudition and
journalistic politeness. Prof Merritt,
a gentleman Of local notoriety in and
about Jacksonville, a man who has but
recently doffed his pedagogic parapher
MALTA, and who has had his name as
associate editor of that neat little
sheet, SO latelr printed upon its fore
castle, and looking at it every day no
doubt, he felt that he was destined to
become in short time the embodi-
ment of "good manners 'purlty Of
diction," and 'polished phraseology of
a scholar" Now we wrote this little
local about the Times a few weeks
back. Here it is.
We often differ from the Jackson.
vile Times, but are pleased to say
that it is one of our very best state ex-
changes and nothing can be more con-
temptible than the petty filings made
at it by its .neighboring contemporary
les. Stop growing at the Times, and
make as good paper and you will dc
better.
And now behold nearly column
of irrelevant vaporings about THE Re
VIEW editor. What harm did we ever
do you Mr.. Merritt, that you should
descend to such lie epithets unbecom-
ing a gentleman of your prefessed
cultured We are not Mr.. Nichols
apologist. We only stated what was
true. What makes you rear so much
like Shakespear's mooncalf in ''The
Tempestl" Did we strike you between
the joints of the harness, or while you
were fleeing like coward, did our mis-
sile hit you in the heel, the vulnerable
place of Achilles, greater man tIan
whom never lived, until the nineteenth
century, and man of "polished man.
ners at that, and can nov be found IT
jackson county Oregon, helping to
edit a little column newspaper.
Our extreme modesty almost prevents
us from suggesting to one that has ct
late shown symptoms of the enlarge
ment of the brain, that truth is an es'
sential quality in newspaper article.
Take this for example from the man OF
diction and scholarly phraseology
"The readers of The REVIEW will re
member that during his clerkship incu-
batting season the editor of that paper
delivered himself of bombastic, gar
rulous, omnipotent /, impotent you,
sort of an article, against the editor OF
the Times"
AS a matter of fact that article re.
ferred to by this doughty gentleman,
was not written for quite a period
after our clerkship had hatched and we
had begun to preen our wings to take
flight to that higher, "sacerdotal" at
mosphere, about which the "polished
hammered" gentleman SO eloquently
talks. He says, when we make a
better paper than the Sentinel. then,
and only then, will he listen to what
we have to say. This suggestion is
very striking sign of dangerous di-
sease of this journalistic fedgeling,
called in pure English, the ''Big head.
Make better paper than the Sentinel
indeed. Bright and brilliant reasoning
for scholar" Such words as Gin
lection, louise, hypocritical"and the like
in an article written by Mr.. Merritt
the leading schoolmaster of jackson
vile, shows that dose of "good man
ners," would be wholesome decoc-
ton for this pretentious half editor, OF
the hybrid sheet, half democrat, halt
republican, jackson and Merritt, a
compound monstrosity; half saint, half
devil, and by close scrutiny of these
phrases, you may perceive who his
satanic majesty is. Now Mr. Merritt,
fairly and squarly, surely our little
item did not give the offence you make
out. You must haye had small guam
tum of pent up venom at us because we
dared to suggest that the Times was a
better paper than the Sentinel, with
the man Of 'sdlction at its head. This
of course you could not endure, and you
thought you sawa near cut to not0riety,
and in order to impress your admirine
constituency, Though very small with
your wonderful powers of invective,
you let fly at us. The inapt references
you make about us, such as "pharl
saical assumption; disparaging other
papers, alrogation, political ambition,
hypocritically inconsistent" and the
like, "became the thing, wherein was
caught the conscience of the king.
The readers Of your gratitueus, marked
copies sent to. this section saw the maj
of polished" exterior, making an ef
fort to "out Herod, Herod. But
your fimsy and tattered effort onl.
made you the more ridiculous. Th
gentleman that made such prett.
speech in Ro oseburg once on tim
says that he will not ''listen to u
never, no, never" until we are an eE
tablishcd success" The logical infer